Apparatus for crushing and disposing of cans and glass containers

Claim 1

Apparatus for crushing and selectively disposing of discarded glass containers and cans, comprising a vertically disposed hopper having an inlet in its upper end, a first pair of spaced crushing members mounted in said hopper beneath said inlet in downwardly converging relation, one of said members being movable relative to the other to crush the glass containers and cans inserted through said inlet, means for effecting reciprocating movement of said one member, a second pair of crushing members mounted in said hopper beneath said first pair to rotate on spaced parallel axes to receive containers and cans crushed by said first pair of members and dropping through the space between said first pair into the nip between said second pair of members, means for rotating said second pair of members to crush and drive the material received from said first pair of members downwardly through said nip between said second pair of members, a foraminous, vibratable grid inclined downwardly to the vertical and having its upper end positioned beneath said second pair of members to receive crushed material from said nip, means for vibrating said grid thereby to cause particles of glass in the crushed material to pass through the grid, but to cause crushed cans to slide downwardly on the grid toward its lower end, a downwardly inclined chute positioned beneath said grid to be vibratable with said grid, a first container mounted beneath the lower end of said chute to receive the glass dropped onto said chute, a magnetic conveyor inclined to the vertical, and having its lower end mounted beneath and adjacent the lower end of said grid but in spaced relation to the lower end of said chute, to attract magnetically to the conveyor for movement therewith cans containing magnetic material, said lower end of said conveyor being spaced form the lower end of said grid a sufficient distance that non-magnetizable cans drop by gravity off said conveyor through the space between said conveyor and said grid, and two further containers positioned adjacent opposite ends, respectively, of said conveyor to collect said non-magnetizable and said magnetizable cans, respectively, said lower end of said conveyor overlying one of said two further containers so that the non-magnetizable cans slide into said one container, the upper end of said conveyor overlying the other of said two further containers to carry magnetizable cans into said other container.